


Tales of Zaofu

by Vxnatori



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-16
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-26 14:17:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5007955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vxnatori/pseuds/Vxnatori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brief followings of the Beifongs a bit after the events of book 3</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tales of Zaofu

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while but I decided to write stuff again. And since I just love the beifongs, here this is!

"Maybe some type of sweeping spotlight system?" Junior planted his hands on the steel table, framing the blueprints of Zaofu's infrastructure laid out in front of him. His eyes scanned over every corner and possible vantage point. By now he had nearly every corner of Zaofu burned into his mind. "Maybe place some on these two corners? They can overlook the South plaza." He pointed at the edge of a building then at another not far from it. 

"Zaofu is a city, son, not a prison camp." Baatar Senior shook his head with a faint smile as he leaned back in his seat at the opposite end of the table. "I don't think the people will react well to spotlights glaring in and out of their windows at night." 

His father had a point. Lights would cause more of an annoyance and aren't exactly subtle. It may even raise concern with the citizens with the sudden heightening of security. "Well maybe...." Junior glanced up at his father and lingered as if he were searching him for an answer. "What if we could develop a device, something more discreet, that can detect movement?"

Senior paused, bringing up a hand to his chin cradling it between his thumb and index finger. Junior pulled his hands from the table and let them drop to his sides. He watched his father ponder, which was what he needed. Baatar Senior was always good at looking at finer details when it came to construction and development. He would always see small, nearly unnoticeable things that you wouldn't even think would be relevant; even in things as large as the opening and closing mechanisms for the city domes. Junior used to hate it when his father would volunteer his supervision over his projects when he was younger. He's grown to appreciate it now, and even gives things the same critical eye. 

Senior sighed as he leaned forward, Junior mentally steeled himself for his fathers verdict. "That's a good idea son, but how would we even begin to make something like that? And if we did, who's to say one of the guards wouldn't trip it during patrols? It would likely catch more of us than them." Senior crossed his legs thoughtfully as he watched his son scour his maps again. 

He was right, as he usually is. Even if a device like that could be made, how could it be placed where the guards won't set it off? Of course having something like this could make patrols unnecessary but convincing his mother of that would be harder than actually building it. He'd spent the past month observing the guards nightly patrol and nearly had them all memorized. He could probably walk them himself. Any logical place they could put a motion detection device would intersect a patrol route. "We could adjust the placement of the devices." Junior said after a short pause. His eyes darted across his map. "Or we could talk to Kuvira and see if she could adjust the patrol routes."

"You know she's got to clear that with your mother first." Senior replied incredulously. 

"Then we can talk to her!" Junior grumbled. He knew his father was correct for feeling that way but the words stung and his patience was drawing short. He didn't think convincing his father to build a device to protect Zaofu from intruders would have met this much opposition. 

"Son, I understand you want to help, and I see you've got plenty of enthusiasm, but I think maybe we should put this on hold. We don't even know where to begin making something like this."

"I'm just trying to help keep the city safe, dad!" Junior rose his voice,annoyed with his fathers patronizing tone. "Those Red Lotus... fanatics snuck in here and nearly captured the Avatar! And I don't think I need to remind you what they did to the square."

"It took months to plan that out." Senior sighed. 

"I know. I helped, in case you forgot." Junior snapped with a measure of bitterness that he didn't intend but wasn't sorry for. Senior's expression softened and Junior could feel his heart drop into his stomach. It hurt to see his father on the defensive like this. 'This has to be done.' Junior thought before he swallowed the lump in his throat and continued. "That's not the point, however. The point is that Zaofu is vulnerable. The domes and the patrols aren't enough. We need to take additional measures."

"And I understand where you're coming from son but it honestly is going to take too much work." Senior's tone was cautious almost soft. He'd seen the spark that ignited in his son and would be careful not to have him explode. "We'd have to figure out how to get a device like what you're suggesting to work. This is a great start, though. Maybe, once we've got the resources..."

"We can prioritize resources for security can't we?" Junior folded his arms with a scowl. 

"Son," Senior sighed. "there's a lot going on right now. We're trying to do what we can for the people in Ba Sing Se that were much more displaced from the Red Lotus than we were."

"Shouldn't that mean we should try to keep people like that out so what happens there doesn't happen here? You want more people like them coming here to assassinate mother?" Junior hissed. 

"Don't say things like that, Junior!" Senior ordered. 

"Don't talk to me like I'm a child!" Junior barked. "It's a possibility! Just like they waltzed in here to try to take Korra they could've come here and done the same or worse to her." Junior studied his fathers face again, painted with worry disguised as anger. "I'm trying to make something happen so we can be safe! So our family can be safe! Why aren't you trying as hard as I am?" Junior waited for an answer but was only met with a hard stare. 

Senior uneasily shifted in his chair, pushed his glasses further up his nose and let out a long sigh. "I say this with a feeling that I'll regret this someday but, for once, I don't have an answer for you, son." 

"I see." Junior slowly nodded and looked away as he began to roll up his blueprints. He was ready to keep arguing ready to help his father understand, or rather to understand why his father didn't seem to understand. He couldn't spare the energy to keep the dialogue going, the conversation was long over anyway. He slid the blueprints into a metal tube and collected the rest of his things. He rounded the table on his way to the door. Every footstep echoed off the walls of the workshop. Senior stared at hands, folded tightly together on his work table as his son walked by, unable to look him in the eye. Junior stopped as he placed a hand on the cool door handle. He looked over his shoulder at his father who leaned his face into his hands. He knew after this it'd be next to impossible to work with him the way he used to. The distance between them began to feel much further than the few paces between the door and his chair. He could already feel that it was a rift not easily bridged. "I'll find my own answers then." 

-

A pencil rolled off the stone bench and clattered to the ground. Baatar reached to pick it up, never taking his eyes off his sketches. Rulers, extra pencils, and balled sheets of paper littered the ground around him as he sat cross legged on the ground hunched over the newest page of his notepad. He huffed a sigh that rattled the shredded ribbons of paper along the binding. It had been hours since he left the workshop but he still hasn't made much headway on whatever this thing is supposed to be. He was thankful at least for it being a clear day with enough light for him to write. 

"How could you track a moving object without something tangible enough to act against it?" He grumbled to himself as he put pencil to paper. He referred to a crumpled page of notes that laid open in his lap before he continued. 

"Baatar?" A disembodied voice called. He turned, eyes narrowed in annoyance from the interruption then slotted to protect his eyes from the beaming sun. Gleaming silver armor towered over him. 

"Kuvira. Hello." He replied, unfolding his legs to turn himself around. 

"Hi. Your mother told me about the falling out between you and your father. Are you okay?" Kuvira removed her helmet and held it under her arm. Kuvira always seemed to radiate confidence, even as she's just standing here. Still plenty intimidating, too. 

"Well I guess that would explain why you're on this side of the city. Your patrol route doesn't come this way at all." Baatar said. 

"You've noticed?" Kuvira raised an eyebrow. 

"Yeah, I've been... watching the patrols... for a while." Baatar chuckled nervously. His hand found its way to the back of his neck. Kuvira didn't look very amused. 

"Planning a robbery?" she questioned with a measure of authority that seemed less like a joke and a bit more like an interrogation. 

"No. Actually, I've been planning to prevent them." He shifted to the side, showing her the incomplete designs for his device. Kuvira stepped over and leaned closer, eyeing the paper suspiciously. Baatar excused it. She was captain of the guard and he did just admit to learning the patrol routes without much of an explanation. 

"This is what you're working on out here?" Kuvira asked, then almost immediately frowned at all the balled up sheets of notebook paper all over ground. 

"Yeah, I'm trying to develop a device that can alert us to a would-be intruders movement inside the domes to prevent another attack like the Red Lotus." Baatar explained. 

"What kind of device?" Kuvira asked, still looking over his drawings like she was trying to make sense of it.

"I didn't know you were interested in stuff like this." He smirked as he titled his head up at her. She pried her eyes form his work to look him in the eye with a slight smile of her own, something he doesn't see often. 

"One doesn't need to play an instrument to appreciate the sound it makes." she shrugged. 

Baatar's smile spread. "Poetic. Didn't expect that from you, Captain."

"Oh, I'm full of surprises." she chuckled. Again something he doesn't hear often and wouldn't complain if he did. "But I digress..."

"R-right, the device." Baatar stammered as he quickly straightened himself. "I've been trying to find a way to get this to alert us when an intruder is moving through an area. Tripwires did cross my mind but if an intruder sees it they could just avoid that way entirely, or if he trips it he might just flee an try again another time. So it has to be something that you can't easily see and can pass through without touching it."

"So you've been watching patrols to find places to put these where guards wouldn't trip them?" Kuvira nodded thoughtfully. 

"Yes- well no. Spotlights were the original idea. But it seems like there aren't any places where this could be placed that wouldn't intersect a guard route."

"You could've just spoken with me from the start. I can rearrange guard patrol placement." Kuvira stepped back, leaving a cordial distance between them. She swung her arms behind her back, the metal of her helmet clinked against the back of her body armor. 

"But that would have to be cleared through my mother, wouldn't it?" Baatar stood and brushed off his robes. 

"Which isn't as hard as you'd think, honestly." Kuvira smirked. "The biggest problem would probably be getting her to prioritize resources that she's sending to Ba Sing Se. She's having to send escorts to even get them there without getting intercepted by bandits so she's been borrowing from me. I imagine getting anything from your father to start on your project is proving difficult, too."

"Yeah, that's how our argument started." Baatar sighed and crossed his arms. Kuvira gave him a sympathetic smile. 

"I like your ideas." she began as she brought her hands to her front to place her helmet back on. "I think that this motion detector would be a good idea once it's implemented. It's too bad you can't get anything done about it right now."

"It is a real shame, isn't it?" Baatar shook his head. "But It's nice talking to someone about it, even if briefly. I appreciate you listening to me."

"My daily routine is to listen to people's ideas. It's nice when the ideas aren't bad ones." Kuvira replied as she took a few steps backward. "Feel free to share whenever you want. You know where I'll be, apparently."

Baatar nodded. "I'll do that."


End file.
